Taylor Hall was Injured in practice the other night and ended up taking a bunch of stitches. He is out for a few days at least but luckily didn't loose an eye. Scary injury that turned out as good at you can hope. Wishing him a quick recovery!

As you may or may not know the Calgary flames have many millions of dollars coming off in contracts from their roster this season. Now comes the time to establish what pieces we would like to keep from our roster, which pieces we would like to dump from the roster and what contracts need to find themselves a new home!

We will cover this in Flames / Kings post game blog tomorrow!

Bourque for Cammalleri

Since the last blog I wrote something huge went down as Bourque was traded to Montreal for Cammalleri.

Well here is my take on the deal.

We all know the last time Cammalleri was in Calgary he was a fan favorite and boasted 39 goals and 43 assists. (good for 82 total points) Since going to Montreal (for an overpayment of 6 million a year) he only had 26 goals and 24 assists and 19 goals and 28 assists which is about in line with the production we are getting out of Curtis Glencross for 2.5 million a year. Now we all know Cammalleri has the huge upside and if healthy could return to the 30-40 goal 80-90ish point form we would love to see. The win / loose in this trade (putting aside the picks and prospects) really relies on this sticking point.

Bourque on the other hand is streaky within stretches of any given year but seems to have put up similar numbers now for a couple of year. He is good for 25-30 goals a year which is hard to complain about, and he is locked into contact for 3.33 million a year for 4 years. Assuming Bourque stays at current production the only other "win point" outside of Cammi's performance is the contracts themselves. Bourques is half a year older and locked in for more years.

All in all its a hard situation to look at, Camallari has the start power and fan power going that Bourque could never mustere but costs 2.67 million a year more and may be a little bit of a gamble as to his getting back to form. Lets just be happy that Bourque will no longer be taking stupid penalties in Overtime or getting suspended for us again.

So what do you think am I way off here? Did we win the trade or not?

Side note: Jesus do we ever love to bring back old friends in Calgary! On this roster we have Jokenin, Tanguay, Camallari all brought back after leaving the team! If you could bring back any former flame that is currently in the NHL who would it be?

Gio and Hannan are back!

After what seems an eternity Giordano returned to the flames line up, and now Hannan is back too and we are hearing rumblings that tonight might be the night that Matt Stajan returns to the lineup. This is huge for the flames as they have lost more man hours then any team around the league! Even so we sure could use Alex Tanguay David Moss and Curtis Glencross back because our depth is looking paltry at best. But such as life the for Calgary flames as their season has seen many an injury.

* Update Stajan looks to be part of tonights lineup which will bolster 7 defensemen and 11 forwards now 12

Gameday Blog: Flames vs Kings

Tonight the Sutter vs Sutter battle continues where it left off with the Kings besting the Flames. Although the Kings are certainly well out of the reach of the Flames the importance shifts from looking at it as a 4 point game to us fighting for that 7/8 position sometime in the future. Having come off what I thought was a pretty decent effort on the Flames part, maybe they can build on the effort they put forth in the game vs the Sharks. Sure they took only one point and the Sharks were rejected by a few post but I never would have thought the flames would have come out of that game a near winner.

Sadly as I mentioned earlier the Flames number 1 goal scorer (in numbers not skill...) was hurt in the match and will most likely be Week to week and not day to day as most of us were hoping for. If there ever was a time for Camallari to step up this is it! He was brought in the bolster our lineup and help us strive towards playoff aspirations and now is the time.

Have you noticed Blair Jones? He looks like a most excellent pick up and for a piece that wasn't getting any time on the big club. He has definitely provided some much needed spark on the team since joining. Look for Jones to have a good game again tonight and keep things rolling.

With only 11 forwards the flames will be sitting out Roman Horak and Paul Byron tonight.

January 19, 2012 8:25 PM ET
| Delete
I think people who think the Flames made a bad decision think that this move as all about going for It this year (that's what they were saying on Flames radio this morning).

January 19, 2012 8:28 PM ET
| Delete
This was clearly a big picture move about this and about the Flames going forward... There just isn't a lot of star power in free agency lately... this was a great move... players like Bourque are available in Free agency (though at an overpayment) but not many elite players are there come July 1

January 19, 2012 9:29 PM ET
| Delete
Good points, we never like giving up picks but sometimes you gotta give to get. Addition through subtraction (buttlick uh I mean kotalik). People do get the wrong idea about what's happening this year. Just repositioning and your bang on webbers and Richards and parises don't come along very often (or iginla for that matter) and when they do they cost a first born and a few prospects and some picks. This if it pans out was better then the 2nd we would have got for Bourque